FINANCIAL MEASURES.

227

scheme for establishing a system of National bank paper. One of these was to drive home, by a tax, the State bank paper circulation, and the other was the funding of Government notes.

1864.

March 3.

The Secretary proposed a moderate tax on the State bank circulation; that no issue of Government notes beyond the limits authorized should be made, unless a clear public exigency should demand it; the organization of banking associations for the improvement of the public credit, and to supply the public with a safe and uniform currency; and the repeal of restrictions concerning the conversion of certain Government bonds. To these propositions Congress responded, first by authorizing an additional issue of $100,000,000 of Government notes; then by an act, ap- January 17, proved on the 25th of February, to provide a National currency through a National banking system; then by another, approved on the last day of the session,' authorizing the Secretary to issue $300,000,000 for the current fiscal year, and $600,000,000 for the next fiscal year, ending June 30, 1864. These amounts were to be issued in "10-40" bonds, at six per cent. interest, both principal and interest to be paid in coin. The Secretary was authorized to exchange the same for certificates of indebtedness or deposit, any Treasury notes or lawful money of the United States. He was also authorized to issue $400,000,000 of six per cent. Treasury notes, payable within three years, to be a legal tender for their face value, excluding interest, and exchangeable for and redeemable by Government notes, for which purpose alone $150,000,000 of the latter was authorized. He was given authority, also, to issue $150,000,000 Government notes, including the $100,000,000 authorized in January; also to issue $50,000,000 of fractional notes, in lieu of the postage and revenue stamps, for fractional currency. He was also authorized to receive deposits of gold coin and bullion, and to issue certificates therefor; and to issue certificates representing coin in the Treasury, in payment of interest, which, with the certificates of deposits issued, should not exceed twenty per cent. beyond the amount of coin and bullion in the Treasury. A tax of one per cent. half-yearly was imposed on the circulation of the State banks.

Such was one of the provisions of Congress, made early in 1864, for carrying on the war vigorously. These acts concerning the finances were followed by an immediate revival of the public credit,' and within two months after the adjournment of Congress, the whole mass of suspended requisitions had been satisfied, all current demands promptly met, and full provision made for the pay of the army and navy.

с

< March 4.

The Confederates, at the beginning of 1864, were sadly straitened, financially. The fiscal agent of the Conspirators (Memminger) reported their public debt, in round numbers, at $1,000,000,000, of which $800,000,000 were treasury notes, with a prospective increase, at the end of 1864, to about $2,510,000,000. The currency in circulation amounted to $600,000,000, and was so depreciated that the Conspirators could see nothing ahead but ruin,

1 So confident were the loyal people in their ability to put down the rebellion, and the consequent assurance of the stability of their Government, that on the first of May, or only two months after Congress adjourned, they had loaned to the Government $169,000,000; and at the end of the fiscal year, the Secretary of the Treasury had the gratification to see that the disbursements did not greatly exceed his estimates, and that the increase of the public debt did not equal his estimates.

228

FINANCES OF THE CONFEDERATES.

unless a change in their system of finance might be adopted. Davis declared that there was no other remedy than a "compulsory reduction of the currency to the amount required by the business of the country." To do this, it was proposed to substitute for the outstanding notes, interest-bearing bonds, which the holders of the currency would be obliged to take in exchange, to render their property of any possible value. Memminger, at the same time, told the victims of his financial mismanagement, that the "Government" found itself "unable to comply with the letter of its engagement," and with this assurance he offered his bonds to the people.

These bonds, as well as all other "Government" securities issued by the Conspirators, never had a really substantial basis, and were now avoided by every sensible person in the Confederacy, as far as possible. Through the grossest misrepresentations by the Confederate agents abroad, European capitalists were induced to take their bonds to the amount of $15,000,000, their payment professedly secured by the sales of cotton, to be sent to England. These bonds were eagerly sought after by confiding and hopeful Englishmen, who sympathized with the Conspirators, and a large number of the members of the "Southern Independence Association" became heavy holders of the worthless paper.

The Confederate currency, at the close of 1863, had become so nearly worthless, that it was sold at four and six cents on the dollar, and the prices of every necessary of life to be purchased with it, ruled correspondingly. Producers, such as agriculturists, were unwilling to exchange their products for the detested stuff, and starvation for the army was threatened. In consequence of this state of things, the "Congress" at Richmond proceeded with a high hand, and, as we have seen, authorized the seizure of supplies for the troops. Had not the despotic heel of the Conspirators been firmly planted on the necks of the people, a revolution would have followed. As it was, no man dared to murmur audibly. At the same time the railways in the Confederacy were rapidly decaying, and means for transportation were hourly decreasing, while the blockade, rendered more and more stringent by the repossession of sea-ports by the Government, diminished supplies of every kind from abroad. The country in the vicinity of the great armies was stripped, and poverty and want stalked over the land. The distress of the people was very great and almost universal, while favored officers of the "Government," having large ownership in blockade-runners, were living on luxuries brought from Europe and the islands of the sea, and growing rich at the expense of the suffering people.❜

* See page 91.

1 See page 46. Among the members of "Congress" at Richmond, who were not favorites of Jefferson Davis, and consequently not allowed to share in the good things of the "court," was Henry S. Foote, formerly United States Senator, and then misrepresenting Tennessee at the Confederate capital. His wife, in a letter to a friend, en the 6th of February, 1863, gives us a glimpse of the hardships endured by the "common folk" of the "ruling classes in Richmond. After saying that her little boy had been named "Malvern," by his papa, “after the Battle-ground of Malvern Hills," and that "he spits at Yankee pictures and makes wry faces at old Abe's picture.” she said: "We are boarding at Mrs. Johnson's, in Governor Street, just opposite Governor Letcher's marsion. It is a large boarding-house, high prices and starvation within. Such living was never known before on earth. We have to cook almost every thing we cat, in our own room. In our larder' the stock on hand is a boiled baros ham, which we gave only $11 for; three pounds of pure Rio coffee, we gave $4 a pound for, and one pound of green tea, $17 per pound; two pounds of brown sugar, at $2.75 per pound; one bushel of fine apples, about the size of a good common marble, which were presented to me by a member from Missouri; one pound of butter, about six months old, at $2 per pound, and six sweet potatoes, at 50 cents. We have to give a dollar for a very small slice of pound-cake at the confectioner's. Yesterday, for dinner, we had nothing on the table

RETALIATORY MEASURES PROPOSED.

229

Notwithstanding these disabilities, and the fading away of every hope of recognition by foreign governments, or the moral support of any civilized people, the Conspirators at Richmond, holding the reins of despotic power with firm grasp, resolved to carry on the war regardless of consequences to their deluded and abused victims.' The Emancipation Proclamation "fired the Southern heart" somewhat, and, for a time, strengthened the power of the Conspirators. It produced great exasperation, and led to the authorization of cruel retaliatory measures by the Confederate "Congress," on the recommendation of Jefferson Davis. The most flagrant misrepresentations were put forth as solemn truths, in order to inflame the passions of the people at home and excite the sympathies of those abroad. In this work Confederate clergymen were not ashamed to appear conspicuous. Ninety-six persons of that class signed an "Address to Christians throughout the World," which was sent out from Richmond in April, 1863, in which, after asserting that the Union could not be restored, said they considered the President's proclamation of freedom to the slaves a "suitable occasion for a solemn protest on the part of the people of God, throughout the world." Then, without a shadow of truth, they, like the chief Conspirator, charged Mr. Lincoln with intending to produce a general insurrection of the slaves, and solemnly declared that such insurrection "would make it absolutely necessary for the public safety that the slaves be slaughtered."

3

The advice of more sagacious men in Confederate councils was heeded, through fear of consequences; and threats of vengeance and retaliation were seldom executed. The most serious result, in this regard, of the President's Proclamation, was the suspension, for a time, of the exchange of captives, in consequence of the Confederate authorities refusing to recognize Negro soldiers as legitimate and exchangeable prisoners of war. The Government took the just ground, that it would give equal protection to all its soldiers, and, at the close of July," the President issued an order to that effect, in which he declared, in allusion to a threat to reduce negro captives to bondage, that if the Confederates should sell or enslave any Union captive, in consequence of his color, the offense should be punished by retaliation upon, the prisoners of the enemy. The sad consequences of

1863.

but two eggs and a slice of cold baker's bread, and a glass of water." She added, in a postscript, that Jefferson Davis looked care-worn and troubled." He is very thin," she said, “and looks feeble and bent. He prays aloud in church, and is a devout Episcopalian."

1 See page 97.

3 The portion of Davis's "Message" relating to retaliation was referred to the "Committee on Ways and Means." That committee reported to the "House" joint resolutions, which were adopted, by which full power was given to Davis to use retaliatory measures "in such manner and to such an extent as he might think proper." It was resolved that every commissioned white officer, who should be engaged in disciplining and leading freedmen as soldiers in fighting the Confederates, or in inciting slaves to rebel, should, if captured, "be put to death, or otherwise punished;" and that all negroes engaged in war or taken in arms, or known to give "aid and comfort to the enemy, should be delivered to State authorities," and dealt with in accordance with the sanguinary slave codes" of the State in which the offender should be caught." There were propositions to sell into slavery all free negroes who should be caught with arms in their hands, and to butcher all slaves guilty of such offense; but the more sensible members of the "Congress," plainly perceiving that such measures would be a two-edged sword that would cut both ways, took ground against them, and prevented the passage of many mischievous laws on that subject.

3 Sec note 1, page 82.

4 The Richmond Examiner revealed the secret reasons for refusing to treat negro soldiers as regular prisoners of war, when it said: "If we were insane enough to yield this point, to treat black men as the equals of white, and insurgent slaves as equivalent to our brave soldiers, the very foundations of Slavery would be fatally wounded."

5 It is therefore ordered," said the President, "that for every soldier of the United States killed in viola

230

EMANCIPATION THE GOVERNMENT POLICY.

the suspension of exchange fell heavily upon the Union captives, who suf fered terribly in Confederate prisons. The story of their wrongs in that respect forms one of the darkest chapters in the history of crime.

1

In regard to the fiat of emancipation, the President stood firm. He did not recede a line from the original stand-point of his proclamation. It was the exponent of the future policy of the Government. Congress passed laws in consequence of it, and authorized the enlistment into the military service of the Republic of one hundred and fifty thousand negroes. The slave-holding Oligarchy raved. The voices of their organs, especially of those at Richmond, sounded like wails from Bedlam. The Peace Faction protested. They denounced every thing calculated to crush the rebellion to be "unconstitutional." Yet the President and Congress went steadily forward in the path of duty prescribed by the necessities of the hour. The successes of the National arms at Gettysburg and on the Mississippi gave the most strengthening encouragement. In the campaigns in the West, fifty thousand square miles of the National domain had been recovered from the Confederates before the middle of August, when the President said: "The signs look better. The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea, thanks to the great Northwest for it. Nor yet wholly to them. Three hundred miles up, they met New England, Empire, Keystone, and Jersey, hewing their way right and left. The sunny South, too, in more colors than one, also lent a hand. On the spot their part of the history is jotted down in black and white. The job was a great National one, and let none be banned who bore an honorable part in it. And while those who have cleared the great river may well be proud, even that is not all. It is hard to say that any thing has been more bravely and better done than at Antietam, Murfreesboro', Gettysburg, and on many fields of lesser note. Nor must Uncle Sam's webfeet be forgotten. At all the waters' margins they have been present, not only on the deep sea, the broad bay, and the rapid river, but also up the narrow, muddy bayou, and wherever the ground was a little damp, they have been and made their tracks. Thanks to all! For the great Republicfor the principles by which it lives and keeps alive-for man's vast future, thanks to all! Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I hope it will come soon, and come to stay; and so come as to be worth the keeping in all future time. It will then have been proved that, among freemen, there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet, and that they who take such appeal are sure to lose their cause and pay the cost. And then there

tion of the laws of war, a rebel soldier shall be executed, and for every one enslaved by the enemy or sold inta slavery, a rebel soldier shall be placed at hard labor on the public works, and continued at such labor until the other shall be released and receive the treatment due to a prisoner of war."

1 To these he said: "You desire peace, and you blame me that we do not have it. But how can we obtain it? There are but three conceivable ways. First, to suppress the rebellion by force of arms. This I amn trying to do. Are you for it? If you are, so we are agreed. If you are not for it, a second way is to give up the Union. I am against this. If you are, you should say so plainly. If you are not for force, nor yet for dissolution, there only remains some imaginary compromise. I do not believe that any compromise, embracing the maintenance of the Union, is now possible."

2 William Whiting, the able Solicitor of the War Department (see page 558, volume II.), in a letter to a convention of colored citizens at Poughkeepsie, New York, at the close of July, said: "The policy of the Govern ment is fixed and immovable. Abraham Lincoln takes no backward step. A man once made free by law cannot be again made a slave. The Government has no power, if it had the will, to do it. Omnipotence slona can re-enslave a freeman. Fear not the Administration will ever take the back track. The President wishes the aid of all Americans, of whatever descent or color, to defend the country. He wishes every citizen to share the perils of the contest and to reap the fruits of victory."

THE AUTUMN ELECTIONS.

231 will be some black men who will remember that, with silent tongue, and clinched teeth, and steady eye, and well-poised bayonet, they have helped mankind on to this great consummation; while I fear there will be some white men unable to forget that, with malignant heart and deceitful speech, they have striven to hinder it. Still, let us not be over-sanguine of a speedy final triumph. Let us be quite sober. Let us diligently apply the means, never doubting that a just God, in his own good time, will give us the rightful result."1

1863.

Other encouraging "signs" soon appeared, and gave evidence of a determination of the loyal people to stand by the Government in its struggle with the assassin. That struggle had assumed, to the view of most thinking men, the grander features of a war for free institutions, rather than those of a strife for party supremacy, and thousands of the Opposition, impelled by patriotic emotions, refused longer to follow the leadings of the disloyal Peace Faction. When the autumn elections had passed, it was found that the friends of the Government, who had spoken at the ballot-box, were in overwhelming majorities everywhere. The majorities of the Opposition the previous year were wiped out, and the weight of their numbers appeared largely on the Republican or Union side. Ohio, as we have observed, gave over a hundred thousand majority against Vallandigham; and in New York, Governor Seymour's majority, of ten thousand in 1862, was annihilated, and a majority of nearly thirty thousand appeared on the opposite side of the political balance-sheet. Even in Maryland, where the emancipation of the slaves was made a distinct issue in the canvass, there was given a very large Union majority.

This political reaction, and the progress of the National armies in "repossessing" territory, emboldened the Government to take measures for prosecuting the war with great vigor in 1864. The reports of the Cabinet officers accompanying the President's first message to the new Congress' (XXXVIIIth),3 were very encouraging. With the hope of weakening the moral as well as the material strength of the Confederates,

Dec. 8.

1 Letter of President Lincoln, dated August 26, 1863, and addressed to James M. Conkling, in answer to an invitation to attend a mass meeting of unconditional Union men, to be held at Springfield, Illinois.

2 See page 18.

There was a good working majority of Republicans and unconditional Unionists in the XXXVIIIth Congress. In the Senate there were 36 Unionists to 14 of the Opposition. In the House of Representatives there were 102 Unionists against 75 of the Opposition.

The following is a list of the members of the XXXVIIIth Congress, with the names of the States they severally represented:

SENATE.

California.-John Conness, James A. McDougall. Connecticut.-James Dixon, Lafayette 8. Foster. Delaware.-George Read Riddle, Willard Saulsbury. Illinois.-W. A. Richardson, Lyman Trumbull. Indiana.-Thomas A. Hendricks, Henry S. Lane. Iowa.-James W. Grimes, James Harlan. Kansas.-James H. Lane, Samuel C. Pomeroy. Kentucky.-Lazarus W. Powell, Garrett Davis. Maine.-Lot M. Morrill, William P. Fessenden. Maryland.-Reverdy Johnson, Thomas H. Hicks. Massachusetts.-Charles Sumner, Henry Wilson. Michigan.-Zachary Chandler, Jacob M. Howard. Minnesota.-Alexander Ramsay, M. S. Wilkinson. Missouri.-B. Gratz Brown, J. B. Henderson. New Hampshire.-John P. Hale, Daniel Clarke. New Jersey.— William Wright, John C. Ten Eyck. New York.-Edwin D. Morgan, Ira Harris. Ohio.-Benjamin F. Wade, John Sherman. Oregon.-Benjamin F. Harding, G. W. Nesmith. Pennsylvania.—Charles R. Buckalew, Edward Cowan, Rhode Island.-William Sprague, Henry B. Anthony. Vermont.-Solomon Foot, Jacob Collamer. Virginia.-John S. Carlile, West Virginia.-Waitman T. Willey, P. G. Van Winkle. Wisconsin. James R. Doolittle, Timothy O. Howe. HANNIBAL HAMLIN, Vice-President of the Republic and President of the Senate.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

California.-Thomas B. Shannon, William Higbee, Cornelius Cole.

Connecticut.-Henry C. Deming,

James E. English, Augustus Brandegee, John H. Hubbard. Delaware.-Nathaniel B. Smithers. Illinois.—